OAKLAND, Calif., Jan. 24, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Turnitin, the global leader in originality checking and online grading, today announced a website evaluation rubric to teach students how to analyze and grade the academic quality of the Internet sources used in their writing. The development of The Source Educational Evaluation Rubric (SEER) is in response to recent studies finding that students over-rely on Internet-based sources with questionable academic value.

Turnitin worked closely with educators to design SEER, which is built on five criteria: Authority, Educational Value, Intent, Originality, and Quality. SEER was field tested by secondary and higher education instructors who evaluated over 300 of the most popular sources used by students.

"SEER is a tool I can use to open the discussion with students about evaluating sources and to stress the importance of using quality sources in academic writing," said Danielle Harris, teacher at Champlin Park High School and a SEER field tester. "I think SEER is a brilliant idea that will help students become better writers."

Turnitin is sponsoring two free webcasts focusing on improving student research techniques that will introduce and review SEER with educators:

• "What's Wrong with Wikipedia? Evaluating the Sources Used by Students" will present the evolution of SEER and recommendations for putting the rubric into practice. Registrants will receive access to an interactive PDF of SEER to use as an instructional tool with students. Register at: http://pages.turnitin.com/WC_013113_register.html
• "Grading the Top 100 Student Sources" will apply the SEER model to the most popular sources that secondary and higher education students use and provide suggestions on how to better guide students in conducting appropriate research online. Register at: http://pages.turnitin.com/WC_020713_register.html

Additionally, a white paper providing insights into student research behavior, an interactive PDF of SEER, and recommendations for its usage can be downloaded at: http://pages.turnitin.com/evaluating_sources.html.

"Student reliance on 'Googling' has clearly replaced the more rigorous and traditional approaches to research," said Jason Chu, senior education manager at Turnitin. "Our intent in developing the SEER tool - and related materials - is to help educators enhance student information literacy skills for future academic, professional and career success."  

For additional resources on how to improve student writing and reduce plagiarism, visit http://www.turnitin.com/en_us/resources/white-papers.

About Turnitin
Turnitin is the global leader in evaluating and improving student writing. The company's cloud-based service for originality checking, online grading and peer review saves instructors time and provides rich feedback to students. One of the most widely distributed educational applications in the world, Turnitin is used by more than 10,000 institutions in 126 countries to manage the submission, tracking and evaluation of student papers online. Turnitin also offers iThenticate, a plagiarism detection service for commercial markets, and WriteCheck, a suite of formative tools for writers. Turnitin is backed by Warburg Pincus and is headquartered in Oakland, Calif., with an international office in Newcastle, U.K. For more information, please visit www.turnitin.com.

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SOURCE Turnitin